


Another Kind of Gruagagh

by Mystical_Magician



Series: Into the Dream [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Jack of Kinrowan - Charles de Lint
Genre: Crossover, Drabble, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-30
Updated: 2012-08-30
Packaged: 2017-11-13 04:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystical_Magician/pseuds/Mystical_Magician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>SEERS, or Men of the SECOND SIGHT,…have very terrifying Encounters with [the FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People].</em>
  <br/><strong>-The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <em>Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;</em><br/><em>We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death.</em><br/><em>… Sleep, shall we sleep after all? for the world is not sweet in the end;</em><br/><em>For the old faiths loosen and fall, the new years ruin and rend.</em><br/><em>Fate is a sea without shore, and the soul is a rock that abides;</em><br/><em>But her ears are vexed with the roar and her face with the foam of the tides.</em><br/><em>[…] Where, mighty with deepening sides, clad about with the seas as with wings,</em><br/><em>And impelled of invisible tides, and fulfilled of unspeakable things,</em><br/><em>White-eyed and poison-finned, shark-toothed and serpentine-curled,</em><br/><em>Rolls, under the whitening wind of the future, the wave of the world. </em><br/><strong>-Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Hymn to Proserpine”</strong></p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Kind of Gruagagh

Kate shivered. This close to Samhaine Eve, the night air was chilly, and the sky grew dark earlier, but there was a measure of safety among the lights, iron, and London crowds. She carried a jacket on her arm, but she didn’t put it on yet. Dunrobin Finn, a hob skillyman and a good friend, had stitched a spell of invisibility into her jacket, and as she was firmly within the Mortal world at the moment, she didn’t want to risk being run over by a car or bicycle. 

London wasn’t so different from Ottawa, climate-wise at least, and Kate was thankful the language was the same as well. It was the Middle Kingdom of the Old World, the original Faerieland that had her apprehensive, particularly with Samhaine Eve so close, the night when the Unseelie Court ran rampant. She had never truly appreciated how much less powerful were the faeries who had migrated to the New World all those years ago. The original spirits of Canada, the manitou, had withdrawn to their Otherworlds and left the lands to the faeries, to the Seelie Courts, Unseelie Courts, and the solitary fae. 

But here – and Kate couldn’t help the slight shudder – oh here, in the land that had always belonged to the faeries, they were more powerful. The magic, belief, and luck had built up over the millennia and had soaked into the earth. She suspected some of the gruagagh had even managed to retain a word or two of true power. 

Kate loved Faerie, she didn’t regret being dragged into it by her best friend Jacky, but she also had a healthy appreciation for its dangers. She had been face-to-face with the worst of Faerie before, had battled giants and a droichan – a gruagagh without a heart that stole the luck that kept Faerie alive. 

She was especially relieved that she had managed to convince Jacky to remain at home in the Jack’s Tower. Not only because the Laird of Kinrowan and his court needed one of them there to make sure the luck flowed smoothly through the ley lines, but also because Kate didn’t want to even _think_ about the trouble a Jack would have attracted here in England. She was simply on an errand that she wanted to be done with quickly, and the luck of a Jack, those clever fools, would more than likely have complicated things. 

Kate was brought out of her musings by the sight of an old man with long silver hair and brightly colored robes. For a moment she simply stood there blinking, and couldn’t quite tell whether he was visible on the mortal side, or if he was a step sideways in Faerie. He was walking in the mortal world, she decided at last. But it was still strange to see a gruagagh – and what else could he be? – away from his tower. He must have been wearing some sort of spell as well. Otherwise the Londoners would probably be staring. 

“Excuse me,” she said, changing direction slightly to meet him. 

He halted mid-step in surprise. “Yes?” he queried politely and moved so that they were out of the way of the pedestrians. 

“You’re a gruagagh, right?” Kate asked to clarify. 

Albus paused. He was a little surprised that the slight repelling charm had not worked on the woman, and it took him a moment to remember what the English translation of the word was. “Yes, I am a wizard. Albus Dumbledore, at your service,” he said with a small bow. 

“Kate Crackernut,” she said in reply, knowing better than to give anyone related to Faerie her true full name. Crackernut, as Finn had commented upon first meeting her, was a variation of her last name, Hazel. She examined him carefully, feeling nothing unsainly or Unseelie about him, and decided it was safe enough to ask him what she had asked other gruagaghs who served the Seelie Courts. “I was wondering if you had seen a Pook and a Fiddle Wit around.” 

It had been more than a year since Jemi and Johnny Faw had gone seeking the Bucca. There was no emergency or anything, but Henk, who had been leading the rade for the fiaina sidhe was getting worried, so Kate and Jacky had agreed to look for the pair in their spare time. 

Albus blinked. “I’m sorry?” It sounded almost as though she were asking him about a fairy tale.

Kate gave him an apologetic look. “I don’t mean to be so blunt. It’s just, I’ve been here for a little more than a week now, leaving my friend in charge of the tower and whatever problems might have cropped up in Kinrowan. She’s a Jack, and you know what sort of trouble follows them.” 

“I think,” Albus said slowly, “that you have mistaken me for someone else.” 

Kate paused. “You don’t serve a Laird?” 

“I follow the rules of the Ministry, but I don’t think that is what you mean,” Albus replied carefully. 

“And you aren’t one of the rebel gruagagh?” Kate asked to clarify, although if he was he probably wouldn’t admit to it. 

“No,” he said. “I am simply the Headmaster of Hogwarts School.” 

“You’re fully human. Mortal.” 

Albus nodded, unable to keep the confusion from his expression.

“I’m sorry, I thought… Well.” She floundered for something to say. “You should be careful about walking around at night with Samhaine Eve not far off. At least wear a sprig of rowan near your heart, for protection.” 

Ordinarily Albus put little stock in superstitions, but something about Kate’s tone and expression had him agreeing to take her precaution to heart. 

“And be particularly wary of Samhaine Eve,” Kate said as she prepared to depart. “It’s a bad night.” 

Years later, on the Halloween the Potters were betrayed, her words would come back to haunt him.


End file.
